What does t-butyl mean?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Jun 11, 2016

It's short for tert-butyl.

"But-" means 4, and "tert-" means tertiary (containing three #R# groups that aren't #"H"#). So what it means is you have a tertiary functional group, and it contains four carbons.

Therefore, the tert-butyl group looks like this:

The (1) is anything other than a carbon, since "but-", again, implies 4 carbons.

So, you might have, for example:

  • tert-butanol, in which (1) is #"OH"#.
  • tert-butoxide, in which (1) is #"O"^(-)#.

As a tip, it is convenient to remember the reaction of potassium tert-butoxide dissolved in tert-butanol, on high heat. That is an easy way to perform an #"E"2# reaction in an exam. :)

Just write:

#stackrel(t-"BuOK"" ")stackrel(t-"BuOH"" ")(->)#
#" "" """^(Delta)#

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